Cover story role of media education in equipping people with the knowledge and skills to navigate the digital world. As she said, to find truth in an age of digital propaganda, “The best digital software is mindware,” that is, people being aware of what they are hearing or watching. And in a special presentation Msgr. Lucio Adrian Ruiz, Secretary of the Vatican Secretariat for Communication spoke of the efforts to adapt to the new demands of audiences and media by bringing all Vatican communication offices into one new integrated structure. He underlined just how much this would require a change of mentality and working practices to become truly effective.
The need for collaboration In a session on Collaborating for Change, Alejandro Caro from Chile, Adeline James from Malaysia and João Romanini, President of SIGNIS Brasil, presented different social campaigns that worked because they successfully integrated different media and different forms of communications, marketing and PR . In a similar way, in a session on the environment, Perry Paul Lamanilao, revealed how the Climate Echo campaign brings together youth teams in the Philippines to share climate change messages via social media, face-to-face gatherings, and general awareness campaigns. In the same session, SIGNIS Latin America President Carlos Ferraro spoke of the partnerships among many organizations in the REPAM (Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network) that aims to protect the most vulnerable communities and ecology of the region.
Angela Ann Zukowski also revealed the power of collaboration in her account of the founding and growth of the Virtual Learning Community of Faith Formation which now has a virtual community of 70 member dioceses in 40 countries delivering a variety of adult faith formation on-line courses. More widely, Fr. Tom Rosica, in the plenary discussing approaches to cultural dialogue, defined the mission of Canada’s Salt + Light media as “opening doors and building bridges.” Building a bridge, metaphorically or in reality, is a collaborative effort. Jaime Carril Rojas, from the Latin American interreligious network on peace education, explained how he used television to create campaigns that build bridges amongst people and underlined the importance of listening. Patrice Brodeur, from the International Dialogue Center (KAICIID) in Vienna talked of moving from debate to dialogue which is open-ended and puts people at the centre of a process of encounter. These themes were echoed in a session of Reporting in Divided Societies. Journalists of integrity have to combat “fake news”, polarization and fear-mongering and stand for truth and respect for others. Jean-Marie Montel (Bayard Presse) and Philippine de St Pierre (KTO) reflected on the challenges of Catholic journalists reporting in European societies, Fr. Walter Ihejirika from Nigeria commented on the many issues confronting African journalists and Michael Unland (CAMECO) spoke of his own experiences in navigating the complex media pressures in Central Asia.
Building a bridge, metaphorically or in reality, is a collaborative effort.
Preparing the 90th Anniversary With the call to strengthen SIGNIS en route towards the celebration of its centenary, the community of Catholic communicators began the celebrations of the 90 years of OCIC-Unda-UCIP, malted as the World Catholic Association for Communication, SIGNIS. As a gesture of the Association’s historic legacy, a pin bearing the official 90-year SIGNIS logo was given to participants joined in the Atrium of Laval University in Québec. This event was held as part of the SIGNIS World Congress 2017 and was attended by SIGNIS Members from five continents, who in their communities and regions will celebrate in 2017 and 2018 the first 90 years of our Association.
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